Okay lens
This lens came with the camera I bought. I found it to be easy to work with when adjusting the basic settings such as auto/manual focus and turning the stabilizer on and off. I found that when shooting, a lot of pictures did not come out as expected due to the slow lens. I'd suggest this lense for beginner portraits, but nothing moving. The focus is easily broken, and it is extremely slow on auto focus.
February 16, 2014

Great Kit Lens + for Learning DSLR
This is the kit lens that came with my Rebel T3i. Overall, I think it serves its purpose well. The T3i is an entry-level DSLR, and this lens pairs well with it as a learning lens while newbies to DSLR figure out what exactly they're doing. The lens + camera combo is a huge step up from my Canon Powershot ELPH 300; the image quality is excellent, and it's much more versatile.
So, the pros about this lens: it gives you enough zoom to experiment with both wide-angle/landscape shots as well as portraits and other close-ups. People get into DSLR for different reasons, so it's reasonable that Canon would pick a kit lens with versatility rather than confining people to a one-trick wonder. The IS does wonders, especially in low light.
Now, the cons--and not all of them are really cons. The build quality does, admittedly, seem to be on the cheap side. But come on, it's a kit lens, and its retail price-point is at the very low end of the range for all Canon lens. So this shouldn't come as any surprise, and isn't worth causing a fuss over. More critical, however, is the autofocus: it's very finicky, and frequently has to hunt (which is slow and time consuming), especially in low light or low contrast situations. Honestly, I've found it easier just to focus manually; but I think that's more a reflection of me being too impatient to learn how to tell my T3i where I want it to focus (it's rather tedious to change zones) than anything else. I'm also not generally looking to capture the big action shot, so a fast autofocus is less critical to me.
All in all, I've taken some amazing photos with this lens and am very pleased with it. Is it the greatest lens? No. Will I be upgrading it soon? Absolutely. But that's probably part of the idea behind most kit lens: give you something that's good--even very good--at many things but not the greatest at anything so that consumers are tempted into purchasing upgrades.
Recommended as a kit lens (on the assumption you don't own any other lenses of higher quality), but not as a separate purchase (since Canon makes better quality lenses that are more tailored to your individual needs at prices comparable to this or that aren't all that much more).
March 9, 2013

Nice Walk Around Lens
I got this w/ the T3i. I actually have no complaints about this lens at all. It delivers sharp images almost throughout. It is very versatile, and can shoot Macro shots, okay portraits, and ok zoom shots.
I personally do alot of outdoor photography, and this does pretty good, but doesnt zoom enough for Birds, deer, etc without getting pretty close. But for Macro shots, I have been enjoying this lens alot and was suprised that it could do so well!
I have already bought the 50mm 1.8 prime lens, which is perfect for portraits, and shows better colors and Bokeh in images. But my next purchase will be a better quality telephoto zoom lens to get a little more distance on my shots for further away subjects. Overall a Nice Walk-around/all-purpose lens. No complaints and love the IS!
December 30, 2012

Great kit lens. Slow auto-focus misses in anything less than perfect lighting. The images are good quality, but not as sharp as I'd like, even under pretty decent lighting.
BUT, it's easy to use and to learn with. For the price, the images are great. It can be used in most situations, and I will probably keep it on hand because of that.
December 9, 2012